Electrical connector with improved contacts

Abstract

An electrical connector (100) including an insulative housing (1) having a front mating face (16), a receiving cavity (10) recessed rearwardly from the front mating face to receive a mating plug and a plurality of passageways; a number of contacts retained in the passageways respectively and including a first contact (21) having a first vertical base portion (210), a first curved portion (218) being curved forwardly from an upper side of the first vertical base portion, a second curved portion (270) and a vertical plate portion (219) connecting with both the first curved portion and the second curved portion, a first contacting arm (211) extending rearwardly from the second curved portion and projecting into the receiving cavity, a first soldering portion (216) connected to a bottom end of the first vertical base portion; both the vertical plate portion (211) and the first contacting arm (211) is deflectable along a direction perpendicular to the plug insertion direction.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector and more particularly to an electrical connector having improved contacts.[0003]2. Description of Related Art[0004]A conventional audio jack is usually used in electrical equipments such as stereo audio equipment, mobile phones and the like for contacting with a mating plug. The audio jack is mounted on a printed circuit board, and comprises an insulative housing defining a front mating face and a receiving cavity recessed rearward from the front mating face, and a plurality of contacts retained in the receiving cavity. The contacts include a vertical base portion retained with the housing, a soldering portion extending laterally from a lower end of the base portion to be soldered onto the printed circuit board, a contacting arm extending from the base portion and projecting into the receiving cavity to contact with the mating plug. However, in order to ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an electrical connector for mounting on a printed circuit board. The connector has an insulative housing with a receiving cavity for a mating plug and a plurality of passageways. The housing has a front mating face, an upper wall, a lower wall, and a receiving cavity recessed rearwardly from the front mating face to receive the mating plug. The housing has a plurality of contacts retained in the passageways, including a first contact with a first vertical base portion, a connection portion, a first contacting arm, and a first soldering portion. The connection portion is disposed between the first vertical base portion and the first contacting arm along a lateral direction of the housing. The first contacting arm is deflectable along the lateral direction. The connector has a first space between the first vertical base portion and a vertical plate portion and a second space between the first contacting arm and the vertical plate portion, wherein the second space is larger than the first space. The technical effect of the invention is to provide an electrical connector that can be easily mounted on a printed circuit board and has good contact with the mating plug.

Problems solved by technology

However, in order to ensure desirable elasticity of the contacting arm, the contacting arm is configured to have a large length, in this way, the manufacturing cost of the contacts is relatively high, on the other hand, the receiving cavity has to be large to receive the contacting arm, thereby rendering it not beneficial to make the audio jack miniature.

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